The Boxoffice is Open or
Buddy Can You Spare a Dime?

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Scott McCloud has finally been able to realize his notion of micropayments for online content. The Right Number is a graphic novella about math, sex, obsession and phone numbers - a brilliantly twilight zoney type tale. The presentation is innovative, in that it is on the z-axis. Instead of scrolling to the next panel, you zoom forward into the next panel which is nestled in the centre of the current one. Tunneling forward to read the story adds a quirky sense of vertigo that matches quite well to the story. Scott is able to provide this comic for the low cost of a quarter thanks to a new company called BitPass.

BitPass has developed a micropayment system that allows creators to charge as little as a penny for art, music, stories and other web content. The way it works is you open up a BitPass account for a few bucks, and you spend it on content providers sites - a penny here, a nickle there. When you run out of cash, you can top up your account. It's not a new idea, but these guys have refined it so that the whole process is quick, easy and practically seamless. At the moment, BitPass is in a Beta testing stage, so there's only a few sites with content available for purchase at the moment.

One of those sites is this one.

I've moved a couple of items from the Tragic Lad vault, behind the pay wall. I'll also be adding shortly, a BitPass enabled tip jar, so if you are feeling generous - but not that generous - you will soon be able to litterally toss me some coin. Whatever is free on the site at this point, shall remain free. Bunny & the Cantelope will remain free throughout the first chapter. For subsequent chapters, the currrent chapter will remain free, but will have a small charge once they hit the archives. I'm still getting the feel for a reasonable pricing of these things. Please feel free to drop me a line and let me know if you think I'm pricing my work fairly, or if you think I should be charging at all. Give me your two cents as to whether you'll give me your two cents. Tell me what you think.

Tragic Dad Blogs or
Baby's first Sci-Fi Con

Two weeks into the parenthood thing and my lady love and I found ourselves starved of rational interaction with other mature adults. So the first window of opportunity that presented itself -i.e. the second baby fell asleep- we hopped into the car and zipped over to Toronto Trek. Besides, baby needs a head start on his geek heritage edjumacation. It's a perfectly cromulent thing to do.

Baby seemed completely unfazed by the Klingons and other assorted alien riff-raff. In fact, baby, pretty well slept through the whole thing. Which is good because it gave us a chance to catch up with some friends who we haven't seen for months - some for years. I've got a great shot of friend, Nina, in her Hogwarts school uniform, and another of friends Sandwich and Cristalia as Samurai Jack and Aku. Prior to donning the Aku outfit, Cristalia was decked out in a 'warp nacelle' enhancing corsette. She looked good in it - but given the crowd, it was no wonder she was feeling uncomfortable.

<rant>Special note to convention going fellas out there. What the heck is wrong with you?!? Contrary to popular belief, breasts have no magnetic pull on the eyes. It is within the capability of the male homosapien to wrench the eyes away and to not give yourself whiplash as you walk by. Jumpin jimminy crickets, you don't have to make a woman feel like a piece of meat. A short, appreciative glance is more than sufficient. Quit your slack-jawed gawking and act like adults f'r crying out loud. sheesh. Makes me ashamed for the whole damn gender.</rant>

Maral and her husband Stuart were there as well. Maral was decked out as the Neil Gaiman 'Death', and our friend Dan was in a very convincing Dr. Evil get up. I took a couple snapshots of it all, and will plop them up first opportunity that I have.

The masquarade began to gear up so we made our way out so that our friends could carry on enjoying the show. Just in time too. Baby was waking up and was hungry.

Update:
As promised - photos.
Baby's first con
Eeeeeevil
Auntie Nina - Gryffendor
Samurai Jack and Aku!

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Bunny & the Cantelope Update
I've just finished inking all the panels for the next installment and have begun painting. Too early to give an accurate ETA, but I just wanted everyone to know that it is in the works and coming soon.

Tragic Drives or
For the love of god - get out of the way!

One of the unfortunate side-effects of adult-hood is that you have to become responsible. I'd set out to lead a life of playing video games, watching DVDs and eating chocolate cake for breakfast. Next thing I know I've a job, a wife and a child. How the heck did I manage that? So I find myself doing all the things I'd never wanted to do - shovelling snow in the winter, eating off of plates and not directly from the pot, and learning to drive.

Yep - I'd managed to avoid this whole driving thing for close to a dozen years - and could have quite happily lived out my days without ever being behind the wheel of a vehicle. When I was still in highschool, I had a girlfriend who had a number of vehicle related troubles. If the car wasn't getting bashed in one accident or another, it was just disintegrating from sheer old age. $100 repair bill. $250 repair bill. Oil change. Gas. $1100 repair bill. New altenator. New tires. Gas. Oil change.

Now, I'll admit that I'm a tightwad. Cheap as they come. When I have a party, you not only bring your own scotch, you bring your own rocks. When I hand out candy at Halloween, I collect addresses so I can invoice later. My pennies have bruises from where I've pinched them. You get the point. Well the thought of having a money pit of a car, like my girlfriend had, was just plain frightening.

But even with no intention to own a car, I may have gone for my license, even if only to have a piece of photo ID. I would have gone ahead, were it not for the 78 Buick that plowed into the passenger side of my parent's car and left me with a shattered clavicle. That pretty much settled it for me. Driving is unsafe. I'll take the bus thank you very much.

Until now.

You see, kids need to be driven places. Pick 'em up at daycare. Take 'em to soccer practice. Race up north to go camping. Whisk 'em over to the doctor's office. A bus just isn't going to cut it.

So I've enrolled in a driver's ed. course and have begun the process of getting my license. I hate it. I mean, I really, really hate it. Every minute behind the wheel scares the hell out of me. I worry about being hit. I worry about hitting someone else. I worry about what I should have seen but didn't. I'd be screaming the whole time, but I think my driver instructer lower my score for that.

But I'm an adult now. It's time for me to be responsible and to overcome my fears. And so I'm little by little learning to drive.

But screw it - I'm still going to have chocolate cake for breakfast.

Tragic Blogs or
Bah - sleep is for the weak!

My wife has returned from the hospital with our new baby boy. I've sent out an email with obligitory proud daddy photos and the nitty gritty details, but if you're interested in the family circus aspect of my life, drop me a line ( tragiclad@theelusivefish.com ) and I'll fill you in too. Just, don't be offended if responses to email are not immediately forthcoming - my hands are kinda full right now ;).

Needless to say it's been a lot of sleepless nights this past week. Not that I get much sleep anyways. Five, maybe six hours of decent sleep is what I average on a good week.

I've always slept very little. I absolutely love the night. Especially a nice stroll at one or two in the morning. Everyone is off in their beds, the streets are empty, and everything is just quiet, and calm, and at peace.

My best, most creative time of day is always the wee small hours of the morning. With no external interruptions, you can just burn throught the work. Back when I was self-publishing comics, I'd work through the night and hit the sack just as the sun rose and up in a couple of hours for lunch. I remember sitting there one night, three in the morning, drawing pages and listening to the audio-book version of Stephen King's Insomnia.

Of course, nowadays, with the day-job, I have to force myself to break away no later than two if I'm going to make it to work on time. Always leaves me wondering, though, what I might of created if I could have just stayed up another couple of hours.

Special Delivery or
Honey, did you order something from Stork and Cabbage?

too tired to post anything else right now - but yay us. We're parents now.